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A blog is born!

Another berth announcement – my boat is for sale.

:: Diocesan Choir

John’s wife and I attended a rehearsal for the Diocesan Choir last night. John would have been there if not for his pesky exam. The choir is doing the Diocesan Confirmation Mass as well as the Ordination Mass coming up shortly. The group is pretty big and has a nice sound. They are guilty of a couple of choral cardinal sins that I know John harps on us about incessantly in our rehearsals. No doubt he’ll have something to add about this. In fact I think he should write a paper on it and do clinics with Church choirs.

“LORRRRDHEARRRROURRRRRRRRRRPRAYERRRRRRRRR!“ He’s listening but I dare say He’d answer our prayers if we took the “R’s” out when singing. Don’t EVAH close your mouth to make an “R” sound. In this case “LAHD” with a clear “D” at the end sounds wonderful.
I dare say that all the pitch problems in a choir come from two things. They usually occur simultaneously. First, someone doesn’t support the sound they are making with the proper posture and breathing. Second, they don’t sing the same vowel sound as everyone else. Take “Lord” from the first example. If half the choir is singing “LAAAAAAAAAAAHD” and the other half is singing “LORRRRRRRRRRRRRD” it is going to be out of tune. Match the vowel sound and the pitch won’t be a problem either. Of course you can’t breath in and support the sound if you’re sitting back in your chair with your legs crossed like you are sitting in front of the TV watching “Mother Angelica Live.” Sit up straight with your feet on the floor, breath into your gut and support it with your diaphram and you’ll be supporting the sound you’re making.

Got anything to add, John?

According to Mark Shea we are “sensible blokes!” I don’t know about John, but I’ve been called a lot worse! Mark Shea is one of the giants of Catholic Apologetics – he’s widely read, seen and heard. Converts make the best apologists you know. We should all have the same passion for the faith!

I’m my circle of faithful friends I’ve noticed a crucial difference between many of the cradle Catholics and adult converts. Many people who grew up in the Church accept the faith because they grew up with it. Adult coverts, especially people who converted from being mere Christians or Protestants, know the faith. They’ll engaged their mind and heart in search for the truth and found it in the Catholic Church. They see the richness of Scripture and Church tradition and they know it not only in the sense of believing, through their study and reflection they see it is true.

Mark Shea has written some great books about his journey. I also recommend the following:

The Lamb’s Supper by Scott Hahn

Rome Sweet Home by Scott and Kimberly Hahn

The Salvation Controversy by James Akin

All these were written by converts to Catholicism. Their intellectual rigor and sincerity of faith is truly inspiring!

My choir is doing the Palestrina “O Rex Gloriae” on Ascension Sunday along with the Stravinsky “Ave Maria” since it’s May.
My parish is a regular old suburban parish with over 100 volunteers spread out over 8 ensembles. Music at Mass ranges from the super-Evangelical praise-song “Awesome God” (not done much, thanks to our Awesome God) to sacred polyphony in Latin. We’ve got all sorts of stuff in between. It’s accomplished by a different group for each of five Masses that has a different focus in terms of musical style. We have tried to standardize psalms and eucharistic acclamations in order to have some common repertiore while keeping a real balance in the final set of music for each Mass.
One big issue is music directors who got their masters in Liturgy while moonlighting at the piano bar. If any pastors read this, next time you hire a music director you’d be better off hiring someone who knows that Bach is not pronounced “Batch” and is comfortable letting the choir know the proper latin pronounciation of phrases like “Ave Verum Corpus” and “Pange Lingua” and even “Alleluia.”
Errr… who am I kidding. No pastors are going to read this.
I’ll write more about balance in liturgical music repertiore another time.

Well it’s amazing this blog has been up for a week and we are already getting email.

What’s wrong with silence during Communion? Are we so hooked on sensory overlead that quiet is so rare in our lives? Go shopping, the stores are filled with Muzak. Get in the car, turn on the radio. Go home, turn on the television. Go to church and they sing whenever there is a nook or cranny to cram in a song. The space between “Let Us Pray” and song or vocal prayer is a nano-second at best.
I have longed to have at least one Mass that would have no music and no singing at Communion for those of us who would like to use that time for silent prayer and meditation. But whenever I mention it, I am politely turned down.
Your blog is now one of my Holy Blogs of Obligation (thank for that phrase to Amy Welborn) and I am a regular morning visitor.

Silence forces us to acknowledge the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit within us. And that’s exactly why some people are uncomfortable with silence – it forces us to acknowledge that outside of our distractions and the general hub-bub of our lives we need to take time to listen to God. And God might be telling us something we really don’t want to hear but need to hear in order to grow in our life with Him.
On March 8, 1997, the Holy Father addressed the topic of the liturgical reform during a meeting with bishops from France during their visit ad limina apostolorum:

It is also appropriate to add here that besides the word and the hymn, silence has an indispensable place in the liturgy when it is well prepared, it enables each person to develop in his heart spiritual dialogue with the Lord.

Also, this document includes a reference that assumes there’s some silence after the receipt of communion in the liturgy.
My best suggestion for getting some silence at the appropriate times is to start small: 1-2 minutes of silence after communion is not too much to ask. Ending the communion hymn sooner to accomplish this is fine, and the instrumentalists need to be on board with the idea that just because no one singing doesn’t mean someone needs to start noodling on the piano, guitar or organ. If you to strike a balance betweening singing and silence, you’ll probably have more success than suggesting no music.